Cold-shooting Jrue Holiday, Sixers fall to Magic

It's the dilemma of the NBA point guard, one Jrue Holiday faces nightly.

Out of a timeout Sunday night, 76ers coach Doug Collins implored Holiday to get cozy and find his shot. Holiday looked. Then he looked again. The fourth-year guard was as lost as his shooting touch.

"I've been trying to encourage him as best I can," Collins said. "Losing is not fun."

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Holiday's misfires weren't the only reason why the Sixers lost, 99-91, to the Orlando Magic, though they certainly didn't help.

Chester High product Jameer Nelson had 24 points and 10 assists, his final dish coming on a back-breaking corner 3-pointer from Arron Afflalo with 59 seconds to go that sealed the win. Former Sixer Nik Vucevic had a double-double, too, with 14 points and 17 rebounds.

The Sixers had hoped to use their most-recent game against the Magic -- a Feb. 26 loss at home that triggered a fiery postgame press conference from Doug Collins -- as inspiration in this one. Instead, the Sixers (23-29) suffered a fifth straight defeat and their 12th in 13 games.

Even more confounding than their record has been the play of the Sixers' star guard. Lately, Holiday's been playing as though he's wearing a blindfold.

The numbers aren't good: Since last Sunday, covering a span of five games in eight days, Holiday shot 26.6 percent (20-for-75) from the floor, including 23.5 percent (4-for-17) from 3-point range.

In this one, Holiday was 4-for-15 with eight points and eight assists.

"I've been going through a scoring slump right now," Holiday said. "I'm just trying to make other things happen -- if it's on defense, or swinging the ball. I'm just trying to make plays."

The Sixers' Thaddeus Young, who's been surging since his return from a hamstring injury, said Holiday's struggles aren't a cyclical thing. Young pointed to the All-Star break, or lack thereof, for Holiday as a cause.

"Every player goes through a slump, through certain parts of the season," Young said of Holiday, the Sixers' lone All-Star. "Jrue went into the All-Star break and usually you get that week off and you get to relax. He didn't. He was still playing basketball. I think that made it kind of hard on him. But he's going to come out of this slump.

"We're going to keep encouraging him to shoot the basketball and his shots will start falling."

It's no wonder the Sixers weren't able to break their losing streak while Holiday was busy bricking shots.

The way they opened the game didn't lead to nearly as much mystery, as they made nine of their first 14 looks to steal an early lead. Then came the second quarter, with the Sixers knocking down three in a row to start. Their hot shooting forced a Magic timeout, followed by one Orlando fan shouting, "They can't miss!" At that stage, he was right. The Sixers were hitting at a 65-percent clip (15-for-24) en route to a 36-28 lead.

Then the wheels came off.

The Magic, using an 18-6 run, took the lead and carried it into halftime, at 56-51. They shot 13-for-23 in the second quarter. All the while, Holiday was struggling. He missed all but two of his seven shots in the opening half, mustering only four points and three assists to go with two turnovers at the break.

"You keep trying to talk to those guys and make sure they're still in sync with the game, in tune with the game," Young said. "Sometimes they get down on themselves a little bit, but you tell them to keep taking their shots."

And Holiday did. More critical than the Sixers' lead was what transpired during a third-quarter timeout. Collins called over Holiday, hugged him for at least 30 seconds and spoke directly into Holiday's ear during that entire stretch.

Holiday had been selflessly giving up the ball, deferring to open teammates rather than taking shots. Perhaps that's what Collins told Holiday to do, because Holiday ripped off three straight shots, none falling through.

Forget Holiday's struggles, because the Sixers had their opportunities to regain the lead from Orlando, even while their scoring leader was having a hard time finding the bottom of the net.

On the receiving end of a fastbreak give-and-go from Royal Ivey in the fourth quarter, Dorell Wright took a hard foul en route to the rim. Canning any one of his free throws would have evened the score at 73-all. Instead, Wright hit nothing but rim on both to keep the Sixers playing from behind. On the Magic's next possession, Nelson drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing to pad Orlando's lead at 76-72.

Ballgame.

The Sixers went with an altered starting lineup, as Collins gave Damien Wilkins his first start of the season. Collins said he liked what he saw from Charles Jenkins in a start Friday at Miami, but preferred to use Jenkins in a backup point guard capacity in scenarios in which Holiday came off the floor.

Unfortunately for the Sixers, Jenkins isn't Holiday. And not even Holiday is playing like Holiday these days.